Of Thieves and Tails - Part 3 - RPLOG
Participants
Date
16/7/478
Log
As evening falls, the highlife of firmament is getting ready for Natasha Silkenfur's exhibition. The wealthy feline merchant has recently expanded her collection of precious gems, and has seen fit do displaying her new acquisition publically before retiring it to her vaults, and slowly, her guests are coming in, each one screened by the guards at the entrance to her abode, of course.
Felines, canids, and various other beings are slowly but surely entering the modest manor, mingling with one-another and waiting for the host herself to appear...
Sven Snowmark bursts through the doors, a one man parade! A trio of footmen follow, one trying desperately to slow the hefty puma's progress so that he can be properly announced, but the loud foreigners is not about to wait. "Sven is here!" he crows, "Now is party!"
Zuri approaches the Silkenfur manor, but rather than head for the main entrance the small salamander ducks into a side street and weaves his way through an alley and towards the manor's service entrance. He disposes of his coat into a bin and pats down the servant's outfit he is wearing underneath, making sure its nice and straight and that he's as presentable as a good house servant should be. He knocks at the door, waiting to be admitted by the other infiltrated agent whom should be right inside.
As Sven enters, the entire party falls silent for a moment, several beings giving almost scared glances in his direction. Soon enough, though, soft murmuring starts up once more, before falling back into the usual pattern... Even if occasionally, one might just hear a 'who invited -him-?' coming from the beings gathered.
Meanwhile, Zuri is ushered inside, his contact gesturing for him to enter the building, before gesturing in various directions and noting the whereabouts of the kitchen, the party-floor, and so on and so forth...
Sven swaggers through the crowd, for once, fully dressed! Despite the heat outside, the puma is done up to the nines for this party. He wears a long, well tailored coat decorated with several medals along with his finely embroidered shirt and trousers and those odd, curl toed boots. "Where is pretty hostess?" Sven asks loudly as he bellies up to a buffet and starts picking out choice bits with his fingers, "Sven must greet pretty Natasha!"
Zuri nods at the other being as he recieves a quick description of the manor and where to go. He does his best to put on a 'bored servant face' and heads to the kitchen to try and procure a plate of snacks and refreshments. Hopefully that will allow him to walk around the party room 'unseen' and note down the rest of the party goers. Hopefully Mister Sven is already in the party room, and upsetting all the uppity snobs with his antics.
Soon enough, the party fills up, and the lady of the house soon appears. A black panthress, clever folk, soon appears upon the balcony, smiling at the large gathering, before tapping her glass. "Welcome, all. Tonight, I am celebrating yet another successful business-deal, So please! Enjoy yourselves, and feel free to marvel at the beaties that I've only just acquired!" the cat calls out with a smile, before taking a sip of her drink, gesturing at the gems raised up on a pedestal on her balcony, two guards standing besides the stand.
Meanwhile, Zuri makes his way to the kitchen, where a tray of various cheeses and meats is deposited in his arms, the salamander sent off into the manor at large soon after.
Sven looks up to the hostess along with the rest of the crowd, but gives a roar of approval, unlike the quiet, graceful acknowledgements of his peers. The puma has found the drinks and plucks a bottle of spirits from the table, eschewing the more acceptable cup that a servant thought to pour for him. The burly feline takes a deep swig and sighs contentedly. "Is okay," he says in his thick accent, "But Sweetwater party is so DULL!" He swaggers around, looking for the musicians. Maybe he can at least get them to play some dance music!
Zuri travels across the scullery and through a small service corridor that leads him to the dining room. The salamander emerges from a side corridor and peers around at all the partygoers before starting to walk, plate held on display for the beings in attendance to partake from. He peers up at them surrepetitiously, trying to find a mark.. someone arrogant, uppity, even more so than his peers. Someone easily insulted. He smirks at the sight of Sven, the big guy already drawing all the attention he should be drawing.
Sven finds his musicians, currently playing softly in the background, a classical piece. The notes move slowly, melodiouly, and with grace, much unlike a certain puma. All the while, Natasha remains visible in her dress, even as she descends the stairs, ready to mingle with those present, although she is soon surreounded by her business-partners. Zuri, at the same time, is presented with several options. A haughty-looking hawk, male, and boasting of his own success. A cheetah, already looking annoyed with his conversational partner for unknown reasons, although the latter seems to be entirely unaware. Finally, of course, there's Sven, who's nearly always ready to wrestle...
"Nyet, nyet nyet!" Sven cries at the musicians, "Party is needing dancing music! How you dance to boring music! Is needing more OOMPH!" The burly puma mimes a hopping, energetic dance. "Like this!" he says, proceeding to wave his arms in a fast tempo. Whether the musicians comply or not, the hefty feline moves along when he sees the hostess of the party descend the stairs. "AH! Pretty Natasha!" he roars, moving forward to sweep the aristocrat into a crushing embrace, "Sven was so happy for to get your invitation! Sven was afraid that pretty Natasha did not like him!" It had been a pleasant surprise when the little lizard courier had brought him the invitation earlier that day.
Zuri spots the hawk and figures he's found his target, and the plan comes plain into view as Sven makes his move on Natasha. He slinks back into the scullery with the half-finished plate of cut meats in tow, but ducks into a side room rather than return to the kitchen proper. He puts the plate down and reaches into his vest to retrieve a small black case. It contains a variety of tools used for document forgery, but they will be used for something definitely less subtle this time. Inside the case is also the confirmation receipt Sven had signed earlier that day. The salamander smirked as he quickly scribbled a note with what he hopes is a passable enough imitation of Sven's handwriting.
Zuri collected his plate once more and exited the scullery back towards the meeting hall and towards the hawk. With the briefest eye contact he raises the folded note at him. "E-excuse me Sir. I was instructed to deliver this to you." He was definitely going to escape the moment the hawk took that letter from him. The language 'Sven' had used in that note to declare his disdain for the hawk and to tell him to 'back off his sweetness, da?' would hopefully inflame the hawk into doing something very rash.
As Sven moves towards him, Natasha raises an eye, then her jaw drops as she looks to her guards, whom are too stunned to do anything at the moment. By the looks of things, she definitely wasn't expecting anything like this, and her tail puffs up nearly instantly, and she doesn't appear to appreciate the bear-hug much.
Then, the hawk gets the note, and his brow furrows as he watches Sven and Natasha. A moment later, Sven is tapped on the shoulder...
Sven gives Natasha a rough kiss on each cheek before letting her go and turning to look at whoever it was that tapped him on the shoulder. He is surprised to see that it is his old friend Sucker Punch! The hawk's unexpected blow makes the stunned puma stagger back a little, a slight trickle of blood coming from his nose. He lifts a thick hand to wipe away a bit of blood and looks at it in surprise, then a huge grin spreads across his face. "NOW we are have party!" he crows, tearing off his coat in one smooth motion and throwing it toward a guard before flinging himself bodily at the offending hawk with a happy shout!
Zuri sees his opening and starts to circle around to the back of the room, the small salamander taking advantage of his small profile to slink through the crowd. He has another seed of chaos to plant. The salamander puts his plate of meats on a side table and from the inside of his jacket he produces a small pouch filled with an aromatic, herbal poultice. The advantage of living with a herbalist and alchemist like Rokarion is easy and ample access to all kinds of interesting herbs, and the salamander's selection of mildly incapacitating poisons is bound to make a few of the beings in here ill or faint. The first punch being thrown signals him to get moving. The salamander leaves the plate of meats in plain sight and continues around the room, behind all the beings turning towards Sven and the hawk, and towards the display case with all the shinies inside.
As the two beings begin to fight, several beings around them are watching in awe, disgust, or even bewilderment. Some cheer, others scoff, and yet others move aside, though no one joins in, as of yet. "I'm pretty sure the lady doesn't want you, friend. So why don't -you- leave her alone?" the hawk calls out, even as a few of the guests sample the food nearby, and the hawk readies his next punch, having narrowly avoided Sven's first assault by diving away at the right time.
Meanwhile, Zuri is confronted with a problem, near to the gems... There's still two guards keeping watch, while their colleagues are attempting to break up the fight down below.
Sven laughs, a deep, belly laugh as he catches the hawks punch and uses his opponent's momentum to fling him into the gathering crowd. "What?" Sven crows, "She is inviting Sven! Was lovely invitation! And Sven is glad he came!" Here the puma had expected another dull dinner party! At least one of these barbarians knew how to throw a real party!
Zuri bites his lip as he regards the two guards. He was expecting this to turn into a bit of a bigger brawl.. well trained guards just don't make it easy for little thieves like him. That the gems are under a display case just makes things harder. The small salamander bites his lip... this may not be doable unless those two move. He ruffles up his clothes a bit to look disheveled, and then hurries up to the two guards, gesturing at them. "Sir! Sir! You must help Lady Natasha!" He peers back, trying to see how the scuffle is progressing.
Soon enough, though, the sounds on the lower floors become louder, as the earlier cheetah snarls and throws himself at his companion too, right on tume to give Zuri's words that little extra oomph. Moments after, one of the two guard heads downstairs, leaving Zuri with his companion as he tries to disentangle the hawk and Sven from one-another.
"Considering the look on her face when she saw you, I'm pretty sure you got an invite meant for someone else, friend!"
Sven is happier than a hippo in the mud as the brawl escalates. It was about time these stuffy nobles learned to let loose. "Nyet!" he crows happily, "Must have been for Sven! Pretty Natasha even arranges for good fight! Come! Sven will take you all!" The burly puma turns and bounds up the stairs, bowling over guests and guards alike as he makes for the high railing and LEAPS over the edge to swing from the chandalier!
Zuri figures he's not going to have a better opportunity than this. All but one of the guards is occupied dealing with the growing scuffle, the laced food is bound to kick in, and more importantly Mister Sven just did an incredible acrobatic leap onto a chandelier that's going to capture the attention of everyone in this room. His long, prehensile tail gets to work, snaking up silently and prying the glass case open, then scooping the gems off of the pillow and cradling them. The salamander's sweating as he does the deed, keeping his eyes on the brawl so as not to alert the guard. Once the gems are securely cradled in the loop of his tail he starts to walk off; not downstairs, towards the obvious escape point that is the outside, but towards a nearby door that leads further into the manor. He has one last thing left to steal, after all.
As Zuri takes the gems, the guard dashes forwards in a feeble atempt to save the chandelier from Sven's bulk, but unfortunately, it is too late, and the entire thing comes down to the ground with an ear-shattering sound, the beings on the floor only barely having the forethought of jumping out of the way as shards of glass spread out over the floor. In all the commotion, no-one notices Zuri slinking deeper into the building...
Zuri slips past one door and finally exhales, unaware that he had been holding his breath all this time. He peers around, making sure he's not seen by anyone, and stashes the stolen gems safely in his pockets. He stalks into the corridors of the manor, recalling the description of his contact to try and find Lady Natasha's bedroom.
Sven crashes into a buffet table, rolling through trays of delicacies and goodies before tumbling to the floor amid twisted metal and shattered glass. The burly puma roars his amusement. "You are calling this chandelier!?" he laughs, getting to his feet and picking bits of mirrored glass from his fur, "Is not even hold ONE Snowmark!"
As Sven crashes the chandelier into the floor, Natasha loses her calm, her voice calling out over the room louder than even the ruckus. "OUT. ALL OF YOU. OUT. NOW," she cries, before storming off and gesturing for her guards to make sure all the partygoers leave as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, Zuri is well on his way, with Natasha on her own way at the same time...
Sven looks confused at Natasha's anger. "Sven did something wrong?" he asks as he is herded toward the door. There is no doubt that he will be getting a very stern lecture from Anton tonight. And probably a couple of stitches.
Zuri weaves his way through the manor's corridors, trying his best to find the main bedroom in order to slip inside and hide out of view. The small salamander picks out a hiding place out of view, between the wall and an armchair inside the master bedroom. There he lies in wait.. almost there...
Soon, most of the partygoers are gone, and the feline lady moves into her bedroom, her mood sour by now, and without another moment of hesitation, she simply curls up for the night, not sparing a moment to remove her clothes, or, in fact, her jewelry...
Zuri keeps his breathing slow and steady as he watches the lady of the house slump onto her bed sourly. He bites his lip. He wasn't expecting this one.. and he briefly feels no small measure of guilt at having ruined her party this much. Sven did his job almost too well. The small salamander waits, and waits, until he believes Natasha is asleep, and peeks out of his hiding place. Zuri concentrates for a brief moment, letting his dedicant form surface to enable the quick escape he's certainly going to have to do soon. The now-pegasus-mander takes a moment to center himself, then starts stalking forward towards the bed, intending to very carefully approach the sleeping feline and snip the necklace open with the small knife from his forging kit.
As soon as Zuri comes close, Natasha stirrs momentarily, before rolling back onto her back, the necklace exposed to Zuri's knife...
Zuri bites his lip. After all the work he put in today it all comes to this. He pegasus approaches the side of the bed and reaches over the sleeping feline, looping his knife under the necklace's cord and gently cutting, ready to slide off the pendant and escape as soon as he has it secured.
And with a flick of the wrist, the golden chain snaps, allowing Zuri to take the elaborate pendant, ready to be brought along for the ride...
Zuri clutches the pendant and slowly edges away from the feline. He glances at the door, then at the window to freedom. He stashes the pendant with the rest of the gems and creeps back towards the far wall, unfurling his wings and making a break for freedom.
